I haven’t gotten a chance to write about it much, but I am a huge fan of JJ Abrams’ newest series, Fringe (Tuesdays at 9pm ET on FOX). It’s looking good to pick up a second season, so I thought I’d try out doing a little live-bloglet of my thoughts during tonight’s Charlie Francis-heavy episode, Unleashed.

1. “Monsters aren’t real, right?” Whatever, kid. Probably you’re already been all brain-scrambled by that computer program in The No-Brainer.

2. The animal-activists-for-dinner cold open? I give it a solid 7.5 on the gross scale. It’s not jaw-falling-off-of-the-guy-in-the-pilot, but dude, sucks for that lab owner.

3. Ear in the omelet! HA! And ick!

4. “Yeah, Peter, why do anything when you can just fake it?” Heh. Wow, the Walter/Peter bickering was on maximum volume tonight, right?

5. “…Her name was Harriet.” LOL, Walter’s ex-girlfriend has the claws of dragon & the fangs of a snake.

6. As soon as you saw those sarcastic Animal Control dudes, weren’t you like, y’all are TOTALLY dead!

7. Even though I know all spoilers have indicated that there will be no Olivia/Peter shipping in the near future, and I agree that’s probably for the best, I was still kind of pleased to see a little Olivia-jealousy going on over Rachel.

8. Hey, Olivia! When Walter Bishop, mad scientist extraordinaire, man who is personally connected to like 5/6 of the crazy stuff you guys investigate, tells you to “be careful,” perhaps you should ask follow-up questions.

9. Noooooooo, not Charlie! Those writers like hate him. He never gets read in on, like, anything, & then he gets mauled by a griffin thing? That sucks!

10. “What was it?” “Big.” HA! Not hurt enough to quip, I see.

11. Is it just me, but is Walter acting extra crazy tonight? Oh, not just me.

12. “I tried to make it, twenty years ago.” Oooh, this is totally going to piss Peter off.

27. OMG…OMG OMG…I hate this! Gah! The Monster’s totally right over Walter’s head! And it’s as horrific as promised! ZOMG!! Well done on the CGI, Fringe Team. Like, I mean it. That was Cloverfield-worthy.

28. “When I mentioned that the antidote had to be administered within the hour…did either of you happen to notice the time?” Heh.

29. “We’ve been talking a lot lately…about having a baby.” HEH! Man, this episode has leapfrogged Charlie to like the second best character on this show. Give that man more to do!

30. And even Olivia, after all she’s seen, is afraid of the dark tonight. And next week? More Olivia-based weirdness. What else is new?

EDIT: Two things. One, did everyone catch the Observer in the television newscast being watched by Charlie & his wife? Also, almost forgot to mention, how excited am I about the absolutely inspired casting of Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock, as Walter’s nemesis William Bell? Actually, I was never a Trekkie (although, you can count me in for JJ Abrams’ reboot), but for a character so discussed, it’s really important to cast well. I have the feeling that once we meet Mr Bell, we won’t be able to imagine him as someone else.